My name is Lilah McDonald and I am 11 years old. I live in Takapuna, in Auckland with my family - my mum, my dad and my sister - and our two cats. I love swimming and spending time at the beach and I have always had a special connection with the ocean. The amount of rubbish that goes into the ocean and the amount of marine life that gets killed every year by plastic is extremely upsetting. But the problem won't fix itself, so in 2019 I founded The Public Water Project. I am campaigning to get more drinking water fountains around New Zealand. At the beginning of the year, before Covid-19, I was looking for sponsorship from companies to purchase water fountains, but this is now less of an option. So I have started Water Us, a social enterprise selling toilet paper, which will purchase drinking fountains with its profits.
I chose toilet paper as our first product, because its a daily need for everybody and so we hope to be able to sell many boxes on a regular basis, raising lots of money for our fountains.